LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The garbage is piling up and the smell is bad. Everything from furniture, to bottles, and syringes keep getting dumped in one Louisville alley and a nearby resident has had enough.
"People drive by and think it's a trashy neighborhood, and no one cares about their property," said Emil Jeffers. Jeffers has lived across from the alley between Euclid and Lincoln Avenues for three years.
He is sick of the stink and says enough with the eyesore. He's called everyone, but he still can't seem to figure out who needs to clean up the mess.
"When I first moved here, the alleyway was clean," Jeffers said. "There'd be occasionally something back here, but in the past 6 to 8 months, people have been dumping anything and everything back here."
The city says it's an easement, so they aren't responsible.
"They have been nice," Jeffers said. "They've said they will report it. But nothing ever gets done."
The job instead falls on the people who have properties that back up to the alley.
"So, essentially you have to clean up someone else's mess when it clearly labeled a no dumping area," Jeffers said. He tried to take matters into his own hands but encountered another roadblock.
"I even offered, where I have a pickup truck, I will pick some of this stuff up and take it over to the landfill on Meriweather, but they told me it would cost me $60 a truckload."
Feeling helpless - but not hopeless - Emil has a message for whoever is coming into his neighborhood and treating it like trash.
"They allow you to take three large household items and dump them for free. If you can put them in the back of your truck and dump them here, you can take it to Meriweather avenue and dump it legally."
Contact reporter Hayley Minogue at hminogue@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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